NAB adds to offshoring review

It's crunch time for National Australia Bank's technology operation with a review kicked off this week into offshoring opportunities and a replacement of the group's core banking platform on the horizon.

It's crunch time for National Australia Bank's technology operation with a review kicked off this week into offshoring opportunities and a replacement of the group's core banking platform on the horizon.

The bank this week revealed it was reviewing about 171 local positions with a view to deciding whether their functions could be provided more efficiently from NAB's facilities in India, which are run with the assistance of IT services firm Satyam and Infosys.

The move follows the bank's announcement in March that it was looking at sending about 264 technology roles offshore in the areas of maintenance and support. This week's announcement would make for a total of 435 jobs under review.

A spokesperson for the bank told ZDNet.com.au this morning that NAB currently had the equivalent of about 500 staff in India. Of the 171 staff under review this week, about half were contractors, and about half bank employees.

However, the spokesperson emphasised that the bank didn't yet know how many of the roles would actually be moved to India: "It's just a review."

About 111 of the 264 staff being reviewed from March were permanent staff, with the remaining 153 being contractors. Only about 70 of those permanent staff have so far taken redundancy packages and others have been deployed.

The bank has engaged with union representatives concerned about the move, with the spokesperson emphasising NAB was keen to re-deploy the staff internally wherever possible, or use external agencies to find them work with other companies.

The news comes as the bank's CIO Michelle Tredenick is expected in the near future to announce that the group has selected several technology suppliers to replace its core banking platform. Multiple reports have placed US-based software giant Oracle as the likely frontrunner to win the contract.

Rival institution, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in late April, announced it had contracted Oracle rival SAP and Accenture to replace its own systems, in a four-year, AU$580 million combined contract.

NAB has been evaluating suppliers for its own program for over a year.

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